Animal Communication: Greta's Crate Anxiety

 The Announcement

On August 11, LCD put this call out on Facebook: "Animal communicator Barbara Rawson would like to write about a pet reading for lowcountrydog.com, and we need a subject! If your dog has a behavioral issue that traditional training hasn't been able to improve let us know about it by responding to this post. Barbara will select one dog for a free reading for the article. What's your dog trying to tell you?"

After pouring over all the submissions, I made a selection. I felt led to speak with Greta, a 10 month old German Shepherd, and her person, Courtney Marino. Courtney described the problem as follows:

The Problem

"So, I've got a 9.5 month old German Shepherd. She's totally smart and is doing very well with her obedience training. But...I've had a problem since the day I got her with the crate!!! In the first 3 weeks I had her, she broke and escaped from 5 different types of crates! I tried everything to figure out how she was getting out. Once I was able to clip the doors shut with like 5 clips, she couldn't get out, but she was definitely still trying! She had a raw and bleeding nose for weeks! :o (So I broke down and bought a crate with steel bars versus wire.) She isn't hurting herself and she can't break out, but she SCREAMS the second she goes in the crate! I've done all the behavioral crate training things I know of!" ~Courtney Marino

The Session (Abbreviated)

We scheduled the telephone session for the evening of August 18th. I started by doing a reading of Greta's body to find out if there was physical cause for the issue...there was not. After that, I asked Greta if there was anything she needed changed. She talked about the grating music coming from the computer located near her crate. Courtney said it was related to some videos she had been watching and said she could put on some softer sounds in the future. I saw that Greta was an extremely gifted visual learner. I told Courtney that Greta would do really well with sign commands and would LOVE to get more visual stimulation. Courtney confirmed this and said she had indeed noticed that. Some enrichment suggestions were made to address that need.

Greta showed me that when Courtney comes home from work at school as a teacher, she is "floaty" or ungrounded. Greta picks up on that energy and it translates through her. This was not surprising to me because, over the years, I have found that some animals will act as a reflection of their person. This can be helpful to us as we have a tendency to be able to see what others should work on before we can see what we need to work on ourselves. I suggested some grounding exercises for Courtney to settle that energy.

We then talked about the issue concerning the crate. Greta said quite simply that when she is locked in the crate, she cannot do her job of guarding Courtney and the home. This caused extreme anxiety and frustration. Greta stressed that, just like with Courtney's teaching job, she too sees her job as her calling and wants to do her job to the best of her ability. I asked Greta to show me how she would behave if Courtney went to work and left her uncrated. She said that she would go around the house to check things out, then she would either play with a ball or EVEN go lay down in her crate!

The Result

Courtney felt compassion for Greta and she understood the vastness of Greta's predicament. So, over the weekend, she worked on leaving Greta uncrated. Here is an update from Courtney: "Greta has been on her own for periods at a time. I haven't left her for an entire day while I'm gone to work but she's been doing great when she's been uncrated! She's also seemed a little better IN the crate! The big thing I've noticed is that she's TOTALLY going to lay in her crate with the door open while I'm home! She was very very rarely doing that before! I've ordered a few visual toys for her, so I'm excited for them to arrive!"

Sessions like these are so rewarding. It's such a joy to help people understand what their dogs are trying to communicate to them. If you would like to learn how I can help you improve your relationship with your dog, please contact me at the information below.

Barbara Rawson is the owner of The Complete Animal. Learn more about her and animal communication techniques at www.completeanimal.com, or contact her at barbararawson@hotmail.com or 843.364.2210 to schedule a session.